Semiconductor devices, such as integrated circuit devices, typically include a large number of transistors within a single chip or wafer area. As the integration density of transistors continues to increase, the footprint area occupied by individual transistors continues to decrease. This ever-decreasing transistor size can result in challenges to the performance characteristics of the transistors, including, (for instance), electrical shorting between closely-spaced circuit structures, for example, gate electrodes and/or contact structures, which may contribute to an overall degradation in performance of an integrated circuit device.
Thus, a need exists for preventing electrical shorting of conductive structures, for instance, using suitable contact liner materials to electrically isolate the circuit features, as the integration density of transistor continues to increase.